Re: [PATCH 2/2] KVM: x86: Allow userspace to define what's the microcode version

From: Sironi, Filippo
Date: Sat Dec 09 2017 - 02:42:39 EST



> On 27. Nov 2017, at 03:58, Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 26/11/2017 17:41, Filippo Sironi wrote:
>> ... that the guest should see.
>> Guest operating systems may check the microcode version to decide whether
>> to disable certain features that are known to be buggy up to certain
>> microcode versions. Address the issue by making the microcode version
>> that the guest should see settable.
>> The rationale for having userspace specifying the microcode version, rather
>> than having the kernel picking it, is to ensure consistency for live-migrated
>> instances; we don't want them to see a microcode version increase without a
>> reset.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Filippo Sironi <sironi@xxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>> arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
>> include/uapi/linux/kvm.h | 3 +++
>> 2 files changed, 26 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
>> index 925c3e29cad3..741588f27ebc 100644
>> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
>> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
>> @@ -4033,6 +4033,29 @@ long kvm_arch_vm_ioctl(struct file *filp,
>> } u;
>>
>> switch (ioctl) {
>> + case KVM_GET_MICROCODE_VERSION: {
>> + r = -EFAULT;
>> + if (copy_to_user(argp,
>> + &kvm->arch.microcode_version,
>> + sizeof(kvm->arch.microcode_version)))
>> + goto out;
>> + break;
>> + }
>> + case KVM_SET_MICROCODE_VERSION: {
>> + u32 microcode_version;
>> +
>> + r = -EFAULT;
>> + if (copy_from_user(&microcode_version,
>> + argp,
>> + sizeof(microcode_version)))
>> + goto out;
>> + r = -EINVAL;
>> + if (!microcode_version)
>> + goto out;
>> + kvm->arch.microcode_version = microcode_version;
>> + r = 0;
>> + break;
>> + }
>
> Also, there's no need to define new ioctls, instead you can just place
> it in the vcpu and use KVM_GET_MSR/KVM_SET_MSR. I'd agree that's
> slightly less polished, but it matches what we do already for e.g.
> nested VMX model specific registers. And it spares you for writing the
> documentation that you didn't include in this patch. :)
>
> Paolo

I wanted to do the work once rather than doing it per vCPU but using
KVM_{GET|SET}_MSR and extending the list of MSRs that userspace can
save/restore is certainly doable.

I'll look into that and post a v2.

Filippo

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